How Yankees feel about Japanese ace Roki Sasaki, who will be available this winter

Juan Soto isn’t the only superstar the Yankees hope to sign in free agency this winter.
For the second offseason in a row, they’ll be pursuing a Japanese ace.
This time, it won’t require a six-figure contract to get the all-world starter either like it did with Yoshinobu Yamamoto last year.
Roki Sasaki will be available for MLB teams this offseason. The Chiba Lotte Marines, Sasaki’s Nippon Professional Baseball team, announced over the weekend that the 23-year-old right-hander will be posted.
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Since Sasaki is under 25, he’ll qualify as an international amateur free agent. That means there will be a cap on how much he’ll sign for. Think of the Shohei Ohtani sweepstakes when the two-way superstar landed with the Angels in 2017 rather than the $325 million deal Yamamoto signed with the Dodgers.
In other words, it’ll take more than a big bankroll to get Sasaki to sign.
Sasaki may prefer to follow Ohtani and Yamamoto and join the World Series champs in L.A. He might want to link up with Yu Darvish and play on the West Coast with the Padres. Kodai Senga, another Japanese righty, could recruit the phenom to the Mets. The Yankees are interested as well. Most teams will be. This is a young pitcher who had a 2.10 ERA over four seasons in NPB, striking out 505 batters in 394 2/3 innings. Sasaki shined in the 2023 World Baseball Classic as well.
At only 23, he hasn’t even reached his peak yet. To add that type of pitcher, with years of control at this price, is rare.
“He is really gifted and very young,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said Monday over Zoom. “We know it’s a unique and special talent, a guy with top of the rotation qualities and so hopefully we’re in the mix with him.”
The Yankees did their best to persuade Yamamoto to pick pinstripes over Dodger blue last winter, but fell short. They liked Yamamoto so much, they were willing to offer the righty $300 million over 10 years, a higher average annual value than the contract he ended up taking from the Dodgers.
“This is a guy that you can certainly envision coming over here and being an ace and being a dominant starter,” Boone said. “He’s got that kind of skillset. I hear really good things about the makeup. We’ve been hearing about Sasaki and Yamamoto in concert here for the last couple of years. Obviously, Yamamoto came over last year and now Roki. Certainly aware that there were two special pitchers coming this way the last couple years.”
The difference between the Yamamoto sweepstakes and a pursuit of Sasaki this winter is that the Yankees’ rotation is now full. This time last year, there were multiple holes. They ended up with a surplus of starters by the end of this past season with Marcus Stroman relegated to the bullpen and Nestor Cortes helping out in relief in the postseason. In that sense, a case can be made that the Yankees should focus on other parts of their roster this winter. Soto isn’t the only free agent that could leave, creating a handful of gaping holes in their bullpen and lineup. But depth can vanish quickly. With an additional top-tier starter, the Yankees could also use some of their other arms to address other weaknesses.
“There’s always needs to address, but in the end, you never know,” Boone explained. “Do trades come into play? What ends up making the most sense? You’re trying to improve where you can. So it’s got to match up sometimes. Sometimes you end up hammering an area of strength. Sometimes you were able to go address a weakness through free agency or through a trade. So you never know how it’s going to play out.”
Boone added: “I know [general manager Brian Cashman] casts a wide net and you’re trying to ultimately improve your team and put yourself in a position to go compete for a championship, but you never know which way that’s going to end. If it’s hammering a strength or if it’s plugging holes or addressing a need or a weakness. We’ll see how it all unfolds, it’s one of the exciting parts of the winter, and I’m looking forward to seeing how it unfolds to hopefully put us in a strong position when we head to Tampa in a few months.”
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Max Goodman may be reached at [email protected].